(Pre-emptive apologies to anyone fluent in Italian who winces at any mistakes I've made with Bellissima's Italian dialogue; your only consolation should be that there isn't much of it.)
(Many thanks to Lady Ru'etha, whose podcast added verisimilitude and--always--inspiration.)
*
Sarah looked up at the dress, wondering exactly how much it cost. In a boutique like this, nobody put anything as gauche as a price tag on any of the outfits. You had to ask if you wanted to know the price, and frankly, the people who came here didn't. They just charged it. Sarah didn't even dare touch the clothing on display, for fear of going into a lifetime of debt.
Nita had wandered off with several of the slim, exotic beauties that populated the place, saying something about "going for a fitting." That left Sarah on her own, with nothing to do but gaze up at the dresses and imagine herself in them, like Cinderella going to the ball. Of course, it'd take a lot more than a fairy godmother to buy her a $25,000 dress.
"Perfect!" The shout from behind her practically caused Sarah to jump out of her shoes. She spun around to find a tall, elegant-looking dark-haired woman in an ocean-blue silk dress staring at her with eyes that matched it perfectly. "Absolutely, positively perfect," she said in a rich Italian accent, her full lips seeming to caress the words as they left her lips. "You, girl." She pointed at Sarah with a cigarette holder. "Bellissima can make you a wonder!"
Sarah looked behind her reflexively, but no, clearly the woman was talking to her. "Um," she said. "I, I'm just..."
...a scholarship girl at the Academy, an orphan who's way too poor to afford any of this, sort of friends with one of the richest girls on campus, tagging along because Nita insisted on company, feeling even more broke and more miserable and more sorry for myself than ever, and suspecting that Nita knows that and that's the real reason she wanted me along, but even a mean friend is better than no friend at all, which is why instead of finding a spine and leaving, I'm...
"...looking. I'm here with a friend."
Bellissima waved the comment off with another gesture of her cigarette holder, leaving a trail of contemptuous smoke behind her. "That girl? She is a cow. An ox. A maiale in seta. The only thing Bellissima can do with a body like that is cover it. But you, my dear." She strode over to Sarah and grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her up and down appraisingly. "Those eyes, green like emeralds! That hair, so fiery red! Those hips, those breasts, those legs. Just look at your skin, my dear! You were born to wear my designs. You were born to be one of Bellissima's beauties."
Sarah looked down at her feet and shook her head. Blushing, hating herself, she mumbled out, "I...I can't afford...anything here." She looked up into Bellissima's big blue eyes. "Sorry to, um...waste your time."
Instead of letting her go, Bellissima planted a kiss on each of her cheeks. "Pfah!" she said. "I insist. You must wear Bellissima's clothing, my dear, and the price of it will be simply to see you in Bellissima's outfits." She grabbed Sarah's hand and practically dragged her away. "Your friend, she will be left to Bellissima's assistants. But you, my lovely, you demand Bellissima's personal touch."
A few moments later, still not sure entirely how she had stumbled through the last few seconds to wind up modeling outfits for Italy's most talented fashion designer, Sarah stood in a private fitting room. Bellissima looked her up and down again, a wide, luscious smile on her face. "Strip, my treasure," she said. "Take those...those mass-produced rags off and let me see that beautiful body."
"I..." Sarah gulped. "It's not that beautiful. I'm too skinny, and too pale, and--"
Bellissima clapped her hand over Sarah's mouth. "You have been listening to the maiale again! You are skinny like all the good models are skinny, your skin is like alabaster, you deserve nothing but the most wonderful things touching such a body. Say that with me, my dear."
Sarah blushed. "I...um..."
"So modest! Such a pretty blush! Say it, my dear. 'I deserve nothing but wonderful things touching my pretty body.'"
"I, um...I deserve...nothingbutwonderfulthingstouchingmyprettybody." Sarah kept her eyes pointed straight down at the floor. Any second now, she expected Nita and the other girls from school to come bursting into the room to laugh at her.
"No no no no no! Say it like you believe it! Look me in the eyes, and say, 'I deserve nothing but wonderful things touching my pretty body.'"
Sarah looked up. Her voice seemed to have left her as she stared Bellissima in the eyes, knowing that she'd never be able to do this.
"'I deserve...'" Bellissima gestured. "You can say it, my dear. Just look at me, and let the words speak themselves."
Sarah took a deep breath, anchored herself to the other woman's eyes, and said, "I...I deserve..."
"'Nothing but wonderful things...'"
"Nothing but wonderful things..." Sarah was even starting to believe it.
"'Touching my pretty body.'"
"Touching your...my...um, pretty body."
"Very good! Now, strip for me, my pretty."
Sarah pulled her clothes off quickly and heaped them onto the floor, putting one hand between her legs and the other across her breasts. At least things couldn't get any more embarrassing.
Bellissima picked up the clothes in one smooth gesture, tossed them into a metal barrel, pulled out a match, struck it on the side of the barrel, and tossed it in. The whole thing took less time than Sarah could spend saying "Aih!" Which was all she really managed to get out as Bellissima set fire to her outfit.
"Worthless! Such things should never touch a body like yours! When you leave, my dear, it will be as a beauty, remade by Bellissima!" She sized Sarah up with an expert's eye, then tsked. "My dearest girl, stop hiding yourself! Bellissima has seen many women's bodies--you are lovelier than most, but Bellissima sees nothing new. Pull your hands away. Remember, my dear, you are a thing of beauty."
She cupped Sarah's chin in her palm. Sarah felt exposed and vulnerable, standing nude in front of a clothed woman who had a good six inches of height on her. Bellissima said again, in a tone both gentle and commanding, "Move your hands, my dear. Let Bellissima see that body." Slowly, almost as though they'd come free of her brain and were acting on their own, Sarah's hands went behind her back and clasped to each other.
Bellissima clapped once, and her gaze traveled all the way up and down Sarah's naked body. Then she headed over to a rack of clothes, and reached in for an outfit. "Now," she said, "the fun can begin!"
She pulled out a satin dress, emerald-green in color, tailored with a business cut. It looked like the sort of thing Sarah could wear to a job interview, if she was going for the job of 'CEO of a Fortune 500 company.' Bellissima pressed it up against her. "Perfect for you, my precious girl! It brings out the green in your eyes, contrasts the red in your hair. Put it on, let Bellissima drink in your beauty!"
Sarah slipped the dress on and looked at herself in the three-way mirror. She had to admit, the suit fit her well, and made her look...wealthy, luxuriant, self-assured. All the things that Nita wished she was, but couldn't quite carry off. Bellissima stepped up behind her, and took one of Sarah's hands in her own. "Feel that satin," Bellissima said, running Sarah's hand along the outfit. "Hear the way it whispers under your touch." Bellissima ran Sarah's hand over her hips, over her buttocks, up along her breasts (which made Sarah blush again, but the effect looked strikingly beautiful against the green fabric.) "Bellissima's girls always look so beautiful, don't they, my lovely girl?"